Generic shindiggery about life as a geophysicist.

So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish!

I was debating whether or not to use this title now, or keep it for a later date. Clearly I decided to opt for the former (mainly because the complete Hitchhiker’s Guide is now residing peacefully in my hand baggage, and I thought it’d be churlish not to). This is the first post in the new category of “Chile 2013”, and I’ve put a dedicated link on the sidebar so you don’t have to wade through all the rubbishy posts. Sadly, this post may be one of the final daily updates I do, as I’m not entirely sure as to the internet situation where I’m going (although I think the hotel in Santiago does have wifi, so all is not necessarily lost)!

The bags are all packed, and I’ve checked in online, kind of. Essentially my journey is in two parts, flying from Heathrow to Madrid, and then from Madrid to Santiago. Check in only seems to work online for the LHR-MAD leg, which isn’t helpful, but now it’s all sorted. I had a cup of tea with my father, and dropped off my bag. I also managed to check in for the MAD-SCL leg, and am rather lucky to have a window seat for it, so it’s looking like I’ll be able to watch dawn break over the Andes tomorrow morning (I’ll aim to get a photo for you dear readers). Now I’m just sitting air side at Heathrow waiting for the gate to come up. There’s no free wifi here (boooo!) so can’t use my laptop (hooray for the WordPress android app is all I can say)! The upside is that I’m in the pub with a rather nice pint of Hobgoblin, so it could be worse!

I may update this when I get to Madrid (hey, I’ve got 2 hours to kill at midnight, so there’s not much else to do), but it depends if there’s free wifi or not I guess!

Update: So there’s no free wifi at Madrid airport, but EU data roaming charges are cheap enough for a cheeky update.

The flight was pretty uneventful, but Iberia have excellent maps for their flights. Best of all however was the usb plug on the screen in front. This meant I could charge my phone on the flight AND watch films on it (so glad I bought that large memory card now)!

I got off the plane and ended up in the middle of the terminal. It seems that there’s no distinction between arrivals and departures, as I emerged in the departure area straight away. It’s a vast hall with not a lot going on, and my flight wasn’t listed as having a gate yet. Unhelpfully, the board (of which there only seem to be about two) said that there are no boarding announcements. I went to the info desk, mentally scraping the rust off my Spanish as I went, and asked which gate my flight left from. They didn’t know, and essentially told me to keep looking around. I decided that a sandwich and some water would be a good plan at this point, and after having an impromptu supper, I headed further down the departure hall. By a stroke of luck I came across the gate and sat down to wait.